Football Penn State set to hire Ohio State DC Jim Knowles as Defensive Coordinator
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
And to think, I thought Peggy Pigeon was gone.
Definitely posts under another name though. No way that person disappears for 2 years then magically shows up today.
Still no Loado 😂. It's beautiful and serene in here.
One day you guys will trust me
Classic PSU fans. We just made one of the biggest hires in program history, definitely the biggest since Franklin arrived, and the last 5 pages are full of you guys bitching and arguing. Not happy unless you are miserable I guess. We should be ecstatic with how this offseason has played out, tremendous work by Franklin to get this done. Shut up and be happy for once.
What did the Alumni Association CEO do that was blocking NIL donations?
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Jed Donahue was not too impressed with the guy, he get's top talent at OSU, and things like that. Then the losses to Michigan were just BRUTAL !. Not sure if his beagle approves or not of the hire, I will have to listen to today's show. Jed always does a great show!
According to my Buckeye friends Knowles went to Day after the natty and asked for complete autonomy to run his brand of defense (43) in 2025 and Day said no. At that point Knowles informed him he would explore other options which he actually was already doing, and Day knew. Knowles did not attend the Buckeye NC party. No one seems to be sure if that was Knowles call or Day's. While they did try to retain him I'm not sure how big the effort was on Days part.
What you say makes sense to me. Knowles even though he greatly improved the defense in 2022, lost the Michigan game with an over aggressive defense that gave up something like three or four plays over 50 yards to players who were otherwise nobodys. The defense this year after the Oregon game and Ryan day's input concentrated on making sure that it didn't give up big plays.
Interesting question this year on the defense -- several veteran players greatly improved their play. Sawyer and JT Tumolau (sp) finally went from good players to elite or close to elite players. Cody Simon at linebacker was just a guy until this year when he played at an All-American level. Sonny Styles was finally given the linebacker position instead of trying to use him as a safety and he also performed very well..
Hopefully he can strike a balance at PSU. Personally I don't like too many blitzes, especially on 3rd & long when it seems that the middle of the field is constantly open or a RB just needs to get through the line and is off to the races. I prefer a defensive scheme like Fangios with strategic use of blitzes.
Any Penn Stater not happy with this is not seeing strait. It is great being a good recruiter but player development is even more important. tOSU has some of the best classes in the nation but don't win a Natty every year. Nor does GA, AL, FL, FSU, USC or ND. OSU's D has had hiccups but is very consistently great. They stuff us almost every year. Their only real letdown was vs Oregon in the regular season. They played well aginst UM, the Offense is what let them down.
This is a GREAT move for many, many reasons. Not just is Xs and Os. Is sends a message and creates confusion for our #1 rival. Players and recruits are thrilled.
His philosophy when he came to Ohio State was to confuse the opposition with complicated schemes and risky formations and from that encourage turnovers from the offense. Obviously, he did a great job but I never saw offenses being overly confused by Ohio state's defense.
Also a couple of years ago he tried to make Jack Sawyer a tweener and have him play defensive end and also play linebacker in some defensive formations. Knowles called that the Jack position and Sawyer didn't seem to thrive under that defense in that although he was good he never reached his five star potential at that time.
Here are the scores allowed by opponents for last year
- 6
- 0
- 14
- 7
- 7
- 32 (Oregon)
- 17
- 13 (PSU)
- 0
- 7
- 15 (Indiana)
- 13 (UM)
- 17 (TN)
- 21 (Oregon)
- 14 (TX)
- 23 (ND)
- 3
- 7
- 10
- 14 (ND)
- 17
- 7
- 12 (PSU)
- 10
- 16
- 3
- 3
- 30 (UM)
- 14 (Mizou)
Impressive numbers; being a stickler, you can even adjust PSU's to six, as that is what OSU's defense gave up in our game.
And how many points did OSU and Knowles hold Penn Stats to huh? Obviously missing the point. The fact is Penn State need a DC after Allen went to Clemson and Franklin hired the guy many think is the best one away from arch enemy OSU. How many times did Penn State’s “vaunted” defenses fold like cheap suits in big games lately. See Oregon and ND.
Interesting. Knowles is a St Joe’s Prep grad and several players from that school have taken notice. Any other complaints you have about him you would like to share?
Franklin has done great but he didn’t fight any alleged JoeBots. However, O’Brien did use them as an excuse for why he bailed on the program at the worst possible time to take an NFL gig he had his eyes on from the moment he stepped on Penn Stste’s campus.
You were spot on. Thanks for the great info and encouraging updates
Yeah Lando was all over the board posting his “insight” like flies on you know what until Penn State hired Knowles and since then he has been as quiet as a church mouse.
This year's loss was most definitely not on the defense, not when they held UM to 13 points. Poor mouthing any coach's accomplishments because they have "top talent" creates a no-win situation for the coach. Among other things, it ignores the fact that there is no shortage of coaches whose teams underperform relative to their talent level. It also ignores the fact that part of a CFB coach's job is attracting top talent and position coaches, then keeping them. The logic of the argument is that the coach can only be seen as good if he excels with lesser talent and lesser assistants despite the fact that a big part of his job is to not put his team in a position where they have lesser talent and lesser assistants.
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Well that wasn't a direct quote , but something similar he said. I was just trying to be funny about how he talks, which I like. . I think it is hard to judge a coach with the kind of talent OSU get's. It will be very interesting to see his results here.
Knowles had the defense playing up to their talent level during the playoffs that's for sure.
He is on 98.7 at 4pm State College area, and other markets. His beagle barking in the background always cracks me up.
I was never impressed with Knowles, but he would have to shut every team out for me to be impressed, because they get so much talent.
You gotta look at the big picture here. It's much bigger than just Knowles' defensive schemes.
1) This shows Penn State's commitment institutionally to moving from a Top 10 program to a Top 5 program. The playoff run showed the money people that it is within reach. Yeah it's $3 mil a year but that's a relatively small price to pay for the signal this sends to potential recruits about where PSU wants to go. If there was a question about whether PSU was satisfied as a top 10 program, that question has been answered -- clearly no.
2) D-coordinator is more than calling plays, it's leadership of the entire defensive program starting with recruiting. Knowles' success was built on talent and development -- but he had a lot to do with that talent coming to tOSU, winning at tOSU and then flowing seamlessly into the NFL. This means PSU is going to compete better for the kinds of players who go to Ohio State.
3) Larry Johnson Sr. is retiring at some point. Heck if Day doesn't make him DC, he might leave over that. It means PSU and Deion Barnes are positioned to reallly challenge Ohio State to be the leading defensive line program in the Big Ten. And anybody will tell you D-line is the foundation of the best defenses in college football.
4) I don't think Knowles would be coming, even though the money is ridiculous, if he didn't hear a commitment by PSU donors and PSU athletics to have a top tier NIL program. If all those pieces are in place, PSU will be able to take its recruiting up a notch.
5) Good timing for this in the larger scheme of college football. Alabama is in transition, and it's not clear where SEC leadership will be -- so PSU can compete for recruits from SEC country. Michigan is in transition -- I am still not sure Sherrone Moore is going to be the long term answer as Michigan HC. Ohio State will still be Ohio State obviously and that is the big dog PSU is chasing. Oregon also will be a formidible competitor but for recruits who want to stay East and in the national spotlight, PSU is a more attractive destination today than it was yesterday.
1) This shows Penn State's commitment institutionally to moving from a Top 10 program to a Top 5 program. The playoff run showed the money people that it is within reach. Yeah it's $3 mil a year but that's a relatively small price to pay for the signal this sends to potential recruits about where PSU wants to go. If there was a question about whether PSU was satisfied as a top 10 program, that question has been answered -- clearly no.
2) D-coordinator is more than calling plays, it's leadership of the entire defensive program starting with recruiting. Knowles' success was built on talent and development -- but he had a lot to do with that talent coming to tOSU, winning at tOSU and then flowing seamlessly into the NFL. This means PSU is going to compete better for the kinds of players who go to Ohio State.
3) Larry Johnson Sr. is retiring at some point. Heck if Day doesn't make him DC, he might leave over that. It means PSU and Deion Barnes are positioned to reallly challenge Ohio State to be the leading defensive line program in the Big Ten. And anybody will tell you D-line is the foundation of the best defenses in college football.
4) I don't think Knowles would be coming, even though the money is ridiculous, if he didn't hear a commitment by PSU donors and PSU athletics to have a top tier NIL program. If all those pieces are in place, PSU will be able to take its recruiting up a notch.
5) Good timing for this in the larger scheme of college football. Alabama is in transition, and it's not clear where SEC leadership will be -- so PSU can compete for recruits from SEC country. Michigan is in transition -- I am still not sure Sherrone Moore is going to be the long term answer as Michigan HC. Ohio State will still be Ohio State obviously and that is the big dog PSU is chasing. Oregon also will be a formidible competitor but for recruits who want to stay East and in the national spotlight, PSU is a more attractive destination today than it was yesterday.
LOL.
CJF: "Jim, did you prepare a resume?"
JK: "We kicked your ass."
CJF:
Credit where Credit is due..you called this from the start ! Kudos !
I travel the boards and this is what I've been reading. The inner circle people at OSU kind of knew this was in the works for a while......there was a bigtime conflict between Knowles and DL coach Larry Johnson for a while and Day supposedly sided with Johnson. They knew he was leaving for either OK or PSU and seem to be high on the DC from Indiana (can't remember his name) and a couple of others. Look for an announcement in the next week or so
They are now referring to Knowles as Judas. This has really angered the fanbase in Columbus. That aline may be worth the $3m!
I really like what hopefully Franklin has spoken to both Barnes and Pointdexter about..that Knowles comes in..1 year? 2 years max realistically..and they learn from one of the best..and then are poised to move up..what I hope for at least..
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